Heretofore, there has not been present an apparatus for automatically reading out marks, signs or the like provided on the road, recognizing the meaning or contents thereof, recognizing the circumstances of vehicles advancing side by side, passing vehicles, opposing vehicles and the like which travel on the roads, automatically informing a driver or an occupant of the circumstances with respect to the vehicles, and guiding the road. Accordingly, an occupant sat on the assistant's seat reads marks, signs or the like provided on the road, informs the driver of the contents thereof, or looks at vehicles advancing side by side, passing vehicles, opposing vehicles and the like which travel on the roads to inform the driver of the circumstances with respect to the own vehicle, or as the case may be, directs him (her) of action such as stepping a brake.
On the other hand, with the recent advancement of the automatic driving technique, an apparatus has been put to practical used in which a white line provided on the road shoulder is detected, and a motor vehicle is automatically traveled along the white line. Further, there have been studied an apparatus in which a distance to a preceding vehicle is detected by some means, and the motor vehicle is automatically traveled while keeping a fixed distance, an apparatus in which the motor vehicle is automatically traveled in accordance with the beacon provided on the road, and other apparatuses, which will be soon put to practical use (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 162285/1998 Publication).
In any way, there have not been present the apparatus for recognizing marks, signs or the like provided on the road, or the vehicles advancing side by side, passing vehicles, opposing vehicles and the like which travel on the roads, and automatically guiding the road along which the motor vehicle travels.
Such a technique as noted above with respect to prior art is also similarly applied to, not only the vehicles traveling on the road such as a motor vehicle, but also vehicles traveling on the track such as trains, and the body of an airplane navigating the space, or the body of a ship navigating the sea.